Priceline Hotel: 4* Newark (Jersey City) Westin

[workhurts]

Started bidding at $65, raised bids in increments of $5 or so and ended up with $101 for the Westin. The Westin is very close to the Pavonia station which makes getting to either 33rd or WTC easy. Mind you, over the weekend you have to go through Hoboken to get to 33rd which takes a bit longer.

Hotel is acceptable in terms of room quality and price/location. I specifically asked for a decent view 'if they had it' and the room I got had a minuscule view of Manhattan. I had a much better view of the building that was being constructed to the south. Half the hotel's views would be upriver anyway and the majority of the other half would be obstructed.

If you want a view, this isn't the hotel. If you want a nice clean hotel, with close proximity to PATH and nice rooms then this is fine and it was fine for me.

However, I did have an issue with some $5 vouchers they gave when you didn't ask for your towels and sheets to be washed every day. The vouchers state that they can be used in establishments inside the hotel but when I went to get my $10 Key Lime Pie at the restaurant I was told they wouldn't accept them. It's the same item that is on their room service menu so it's coming out of the fridge but they wouldn't give it to me.

By the way, room service has a charge of $5 regardless of item price plus 21% gratuity and 7% tax. Yes, I know I'm being cheap but I wanted my $10 pie and they were giving me grief. I walked down to the lobby to order the stupid thing so I could get it to go. Their lounge that is supposed to be open to midnight (per the guest services booklet) actually closed the kitchen at 10pm. It's a pie people. Just have anyone go into the stupid giant fridge and grab it. They conceded the $5 room service charge and sent it up anyway and then charged me 21% gratuity after I had spent a good 20 minutes in the lobby trying to figure out how I was going to get my Key Lime Pie.

To add insult to injury they also charged me $3.xx for an item from their refreshment center. Note the term, it's not a mini fridge. I think it's set up so that if you remove an item for a certain period of time then it automatically charges you. I removed one of their non-perishable drinks so I could put a water bottle in it. I'm not renting an entire mini fridge to put a bottle of water in it. This is idiotic.

This is the 1st time I've stayed at a Westin stateside, the other times were St. Johns and Grand Cayman and I don't recall feeling like I was being nickle and dimed all the time.

Long story short. This is not a bad hotel I'd give it a 7/10. The rooms are actually really nice but they did rub me the wrong way. I would still go back if they were the cheapest but if I'm pricelining the area I'd certainly be keeping my fingers crossed that I'd get the Hyatt. On the weekend the W may even be more convenient.

[yellowdog]

Welcome to BetterBidding and congratulations on your success!

Thank you for sharing your result with the board.

Good to see that your stay was ok despite a few issues.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start future purchases.

Yellowdog.